Different Eyes
by Shari Maxwell
Summary: EdxRoy Roy realizes just how cruel reality can be when Edward isn't around to make life worth living...


The sake had a bittersweet taste as Roy put the glass to his lips. This was one of the only ways Roy could forget everything bad that had happened throughout the day. It was deceit of his senses, but he could care less what it really was.

As he drank more and more, life seemed to become the happy world with silver-lining he had always wished it would be. Nothing seemed to go right for him; when he was in a hurry everything seemed to slow down or stop him and when he wanted something to happen it never did.

The same as now when he had hoped that Edward would come back unharmed and just as before; it all backfired.

Roy got up after paying for his drink and left the bar to head back to his home. Leaves fell from the branches of now winter bare trees. As he stepped on them they crackled and crunched under his footsteps that echoed throughout the empty street.

When Roy arrived at his house, he was still sober enough to be able to unlock the door without much trouble. He carelessly flung his coat off and didn't bother to see where it landed; the only thing Roy really wanted to concentrate on was the fading memory of Ed's smiling face.

His body felt numb as he shut the door to his closet where one red jacket made a point of not blending in. Roy knew this was the end of his days of dating and love, but he had learned how to conceal these kind of things.

Roy didn't hear anything other than silence in the house as he wished he would suddenly sit up in bed and wake up from this horrible nightmare. Realizing this was the cruel reality he had dealt with all his life Roy went up the stairs and into his bedroom.

Nobody was already asleep in his bed when he flicked turned on the lamp on his nightstand. No one was there to yell at him for coming home so late and waking them up without even considering them first.

And when he slipped into bed it was cold and desolate; no one's body was there to warm him up either. Roy didn't even feel like he had enough strength to wake up the next morning because he would never see Edward again in this place.

The only place he'd see him was in death, but Roy didn't know whether there was such a thing as heaven and hell. Not to mention, Edward could potentially go to either and so could he.

He figured there was only one way to find out though and so far he hadn't been brave enough to go through with it.

> > >

The world was just another illusion as Roy retraced his steps yet he saw Edward farther up the street meaning everything he thought was real had just been an illusion or _this_ was just an illusion.

Edward was sitting on a bench that seemed more like it belonged in a park instead of in front of a bar. Roy took a place next to him without saying anything and they sat side-by-side for what seemed like ages. Finally Edward looked at Roy and he was smiling sadly.

"Why'd you decide to join me here?" Ed sighed and stared into the blackness that now surrounded the bench on all sides.

"Where is here anyway?" Roy felt more comfortable in this oblivion than he felt in his own home.

Ed leaned against Roy and let his head rest on Roy's shoulder. "Wherever the dead go when we leave the living world behind."

Roy remained quiet as he put his arm around Ed and found a human arm instead of the usual automail.

"Nice isn't it? Too bad I can't feel anything..." Edward sat up and let Roy's arm fall to his side.

"Am I dead too?" Roy saw Edward still smiling at the abyss before he focused on Roy.

"I don't know... Maybe, maybe not... But don't feel sorry for me. If you wake up again, promise me you'll keep living and be happy for the both of us."

Roy could feel tears that had been kept inside for so long. "Everything in that world is so ugly and horrible. How can anyone live there happily?"

Ed stood up and began walking away but before he completely faded from Roy's view he turned back. "The ugly things is what makes living so beautiful. The hardships we face is what makes us realize how wonderful it is to be alive. Just remember that."

> > >

Roy really did sit up in bed and found himself waking from a dream. It was just as he remembered before he went to bed.

No one beside him, but when Roy ran his hand over the spot where Edward would usually sleep; he found a ring that Edward had said he'd found many months earlier.

Roy slipped on the finger and noticed it was warm as if someone had just taken it off only minutes before he had woken up. As he slipped on the ring Roy felt tears, but smiled anyway.

"Thank you Edward..."

Roy stood up as he saw faint traces of the sun rising; he felt like today would be better than yesterday. Now that he saw the world through different eyes.

**Please review (and maybe I might make a sequal since it does seem to have that kind of ending.)**


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